It takes a set big kahones to spray that smoke-ring pattern, freehand..... I use Mike Grants' decals for mine. Kudos to you, sir.

Ian

The smoke rings are a real reason for a serious headache.

When I tested them on a white paper sheet they looked very thin & decent at the first single pass.

But when I sprayed them on the kit the result was disappointing: the first hand of green was not having coverage... so I have done a second passage, but the second hand of paint has made the rings too wide from the result that I was interested to achieve.

Now I'm in the way to finish the undersurfaces (decals + sealant) and as possible I will retouch the smoke rings not properly well done to recover the defects.

I was completely unsatisfied from the result achieved painting the F-104.The smoke ring effect do not work as I would.There were some failed attempts to correct the errors and, worse of all, smoke rings have been not come out as desidered.

A pair of days ago the decision: AWAY ALL, done a repaint of the upper surfaces, this time used the XTRACOLOR enamel that is gloss, so the errors in the future smoke rings can be corrected more easily than on the first layer of Humbrol matt Sand.

Your '104 is looking great!! I had the same idea several months ago, combining the wings and tail from an Academy YF-16 with a Monogram F-104; it is a very easy mod to make, and so far I have built five, including a Navy bird. All are slighly different, I figure that these are the test birds, not yet up to production standard!!

I had the same idea several months ago, combining the wings and tail from an Academy YF-16 with a Monogram F-104; it is a very easy mod to make, and so far I have built five, including a Navy bird. All are slighly different, I figure that these are the test birds, not yet up to production standard!!Wes W.

BEAUTIFUL WORK!I'm studying in these hours of to start a new conversion, ever a F-16 mixed with F-104 but I need of to reach something of different from the results seen around until now.